The Power of Assumptions

A few weeks ago I was in some leadership classes at work that were taught by an PhD Industrial Psychologist. It was very interesting and I learned a lot. He was very knowledgeable about what is going on inside the brain during different actions and thought processes. One example was that the act of throwing a ball to someone on the move (i.e. playing catch) uses the same pathways in your brain that all delayed gratification decisions do. You are holding the ball while visualizing where the ball and person will meet at a point in the future. This is why it is very important to play arch with your kids. It trains their brains to use these pathways and help them develop the skills necessary to delay gratification.

How does this relate to audio? Another thing he takes about was the power of assumptions. When we believe/assume that something is true the way our brain reacts to it chemically and electrically is identical rather it is in fact true or not. The secondary effect that happens is that we then become supremely aware of every little thing that supports our assumption and we blindly ignor anything contradictory. He said that this is why it is so difficult to get someone to change their opinion of you. His point was that we needed to be aware of this involuntary response and be willing to ask ourselves if there was any other way to look at a given situation.

It made me think about how this directly relates to audio. What we assume can actually have a stronger impact our experience than the objective facts. For example, if I assume that solid state amplifiers are inferior it will be extremely difficult for me to have a positive experience with one because my brain will be working overtime to find a way to support my assumption. It might take hearing a solid state amplifier while believing it to be a tube amplifier to force my to be objective and at least consider that a solid state amplifier might sound great.